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Lowell judicial center awarded design grant

LOWELL -- The city's long-awaited judicial center saw a major breakthrough Tuesday, when the Patrick administration awarded the project $1.2 million in funding.

The announcement was part of the administration's fiscal 2013 capital-spending plan, which shows which projects are being funded this year.

The money will go toward designing the judicial center. The design phase is expected to begin in January 2013 and take about a year, with construction on the $175 million project starting in the spring of 2014.

State Sen. Eileen Donoghue and state Reps. Tom Golden, David Nangle and Kevin Murphy, all Lowell Democrats, said Gov. Deval Patrick's willingness to move forward with the center's design is a signal the entire project will be funded. They hailed the development as a major boost to the city's downtown revitalization.

"It's been a long time coming," said Donoghue, who is an attorney. "It was the next crucial step."

Originally scheduled to be completed by 2013, the judicial center has suffered a string of delays over the years due to the state's shaky economic climate. The center is now expected to open in 2016 or early 2017.

The new 245,000-square-foot facility will house five court departments, including superior, district, housing, juvenile, and probate and family courts. Those projects and others will be financed through the sale of bonds.

City officials have said the project is vital to the success of the 15-acre Hamilton Canal District.

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It is expected to create construction jobs for the region, as well as lure lawyers and other professionals downtown, benefiting area businesses.

Once under way, the center will be the largest construction project in the state.

"If you take the (Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell) and LeLacheur Park and combine them, this is still a bigger project," said Murphy, also an attorney. "It's going to create jobs. It's going to spur economic development. It's great for the city."

Negotiations to bring a new judicial center to Lowell crawled along for nearly a decade.

Once slated to be built on Davidson Street, near the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, the project was moved due to fears of flooding at that site by the Concord River.

In the summer of 2008, the deal was finalized when the state agreed to purchase from the city for $3.8 million a 4-acre Jackson Street property near the Lord Overpass.

In the meantime, Nangle said people who work at and use Lowell District Court on Hurd Street have to deal with poor building conditions due to a lack of financial investment in maintenance.

Golden said city officials will continue to focus on what to do with the Middlesex Superior Court, Lowell District Court and the Middlesex Juvenile Court, once their operations move to the judicial center.

The state's Division of Capital Asset Management has been working to facilitate the future of the buildings.

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